Manga Review – Ubel Blatt Vol 1 by Etorouji Shiono (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Fantasy/Manga
Length: 448 pages
Publisher: Yen Press
Release Date: January 20, 2015
ISBN-13: 978-0316380485
Stand Alone or Series: 1st vol in the Ubel Blatt series
Source: Bought
Rating: 4/5 stars

“After twenty long years in the dark, the time has come for a confrontation with Glenn, one of the Seven Heroes!

Hatred…envy…confusion…Köinzell’s heart overflows with emotion as he moves singularly toward his revenge, blade in hand! But it only takes an instant for the situation to take an unexpected turn…

An epic fantasy on the grandest of scales!”

This is the first volume in the Ubel Blatt series and I liked it better than Vol 0. The illustration is decent, not amazing, but well done. The story is epic fantasy in nature.

My biggest complaint about this series so far is the sheer number of characters that are thrown at the reader right from the start. By the end of the volume I had mostly straightened out who was who; but it was a struggle at first. I did really enjoy the action scenes throughout; they were well done and easy to follow.

The story jumps around a bit between past and present. The main premise is that Koinzell has determined he needs to kill the Seven Heroes in revenge. He ends up traveling with a group of other characters during his quest.

Bits of all of the characters’ pasts are slowly revealed. This is a well done epic fantasy story and by the end of the manga I was engaged and interested in the story. You have to be patient with the first part of this volume because it is a bit of both a character and information overload.

Overall this was a well done epic fantasy manga. The drawing and story is well done. There are waaayyyy too many characters introduced right away and this was a bit confusing. However, this settled down as the volume continued. I would recommend to adult and older manga readers who enjoy epic fantasy manga. This isn’t even close to being as good as Vinland Saga, but it is decently done and entertaining. I plan on continuing the series.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Goodreads Reading Challenge
– Mount TBR Reading Challenge
– Graphic Novel Reading Challenge